"Office is friendlier and more economical than at any point in its history," writes Gizmodo's...

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Transcripts&10-K's Comments (105)
 
"but not everyone is convinced consumers should opt for a $100/year subscription instead of a $140 license, in spite of the extra features that come with the former."

Extra features should come with a huge asterisk; the two offerings discussed are not comparable to each other in many, many ways...
30 Jan, 01:29 PM Reply Like

Yokyok Comments (275)
 
redmond... we have a problem
the same sort of delusional thinking that brought you Surface

SALES OF WINDOWS RT DEVICES SAID TO BE LESS THAN 1 MILLION UNITS
("...Sales are now estimated to be around 400,000 units")
http://bit.ly/XKa5MK
30 Jan, 01:34 PM Reply Like

rjgood Comments (164)
 
"but not everyone is convinced consumers should opt for a $100/year subscription instead of a $140 license"

Keep in mind that you get 5 licenses for $100 per year. This is huge for enterprises. $100 per year vs. up to $700 (140 x 5 licenses) over a typical 3 year lifecycle. About 20% of my employees have a company PC and at least one other device (phone and tablet) that requires an office license.
30 Jan, 01:50 PM Reply Like

SA Editor Eric Jhonsa Comments (563)
 
True. But the Small Business Premium version costs $150/year, and (unlike with Home Premium) Microsoft seems to be limiting subscriptions to individual users, albeit while supporting 5 PCs.

http://zd.net/WylXF6
30 Jan, 01:56 PM Reply Like

brianngaibh Comments (122)
 
also the 25g skydrive storage, plus the maintenance cost for corporations to do upgrade for each workstations!
31 Jan, 11:55 AM Reply Like

kopytklm Comment (1)
 
If you a Skype user who calls internationally from a smartphone or a computer to a dial-up phone 60 mins/month could pay off the whole yearly subscription.
30 Jan, 06:52 PM Reply Like

rdumont99 Comments (37)
 
$150/yr for an enterprise is chump change vs. the cost to train up your staff on an alternative (e.g. OpenOffice, Google, etc.). For rjgood above, MS's refresh cycle on Office may be ~3 yrs, but don't forget that businesses often skip a version, so it's closer to 6 or 7 years per license. Overall, this is win-win-win - end-users are more likely to move to newest versions (driving upgrades in those who don't), use Office across multiple devices, and MS gets a recurring, predictable and flattened revenue stream. Businesses will also see the benefits for many of the same reasons as above. Office should continue to be cash cow for Microsoft for at least several years to come.
30 Jan, 07:11 PM Reply Like

casso Comments (3)
 
This is a no-brained for businesses. 5 device licences for $100 per year. Sign me up.
31 Jan, 05:52 AM Reply Like